I will admit that I had some of the same prejudices against Schmidt being voiced on these comments going into the Salesforce.com keynote where this statement was made.

However, he most definitely said STAY on the board and not STAND.

He had nothing but good things to say Steve Jobs, Apple, and Apple's products.

He was not so kind to Steve Balmer and Sarah Palin.

I definitely left the keynote with a lot more respect for him than when I went in.

Quote:

Originally Posted by IQatEdo

Thanks for the clarification.

Yes, thanks.

Anyone what to play the telephone game. Or in this case the bad blog copy/paste game. Nice follow up to the "Another Lost iPhone Prototype" bs story that CNET started a couple days ago. Journalism at it's finest.

Eric Schmidt said in a new interview that he stayed on the Apple Board of Directors until he "could steal something awesome"

I WILL FOREVER KNOW, that the ONLY reason HTC, Motorola, Samsung and other iPhone Copy-Cats, even have a modern Smartphone/Computer on your Cellphone product, is:

BECAUSE ERIC SCHMIDT sat on the Apple Board when, in BOARD ROOM CONFIDENCE, plans for the Original iPhone release of 2007, were discussed.

That DICK ran back to Google and told Larry Page and Sergey Brin
that Google needed to get into the Android OS development business because this Apple INVENTION (Yes, the Original iPhone Invention, created the "modern" Smartphone Industry. RIM and Palm had a different vision, and now proven, dying vision), was going to be HUGE !!!!!!

If Eric Schmidt did not sit in, on those PRIVATE board meetings, the 5 year head start Apple had, would have been more like an 8 or 9 year head start.

FACT !!!!

If the "facts" were as you stated and this scenario you painted actually happened, that would make Steve Jobs kinda dumb for insisting he be a member of the board and keeping him around, don't you think? And we all know Steve Jobs isn't a stupid man.

Good grief everyone, the man said 'stay' not 'stand': "I stayed on the board as long as I could until I couldn't stay anymore."

It's not just semantics - that one word change alters the entire meaning of the statement. Seen in its original, it is entirely consistent with a guy expressing his pride at having been a member of the board, and it carries with it the connotation of a little sadness, as in 'I wanted to stay longer but could not.'

I understand we must have knee jerk reactions and ruthlessly trash the 'enemy' at all costs, but perhaps a little fairness is in order, here.

What a smarmy, creepy, ferret-faced little man. Too much sand kicked in his face for too many years on too many beaches. Would any of you parents let THIS man babysit your children? Trust is everything. Betrayal is unforgivable. May he endure the rest of eternity in one of Satan's mouths alongside Brutus, Cassius, and Judas. (A Dantean allusion.)

Hmmm, now that the story was inaccurate and he didn't bad mouth your oh-so-heavenly Apple board members, I wonder your stance on Mr. Schmidt now. Do you still wish for him to burn in hell with Satan? I'm sure you're high horse reaches up to the heavens. Little extreme IMO....

I hope Schmidt is proud of the excellent corporate espionage he did on behalf of Google.

I'm sure he would have wanted to stay on Apple's board longer if he hadn't been shut out of all iPad discussions.
Once he got fingered for stealing iPhone ideas, he was taken out of the loop.

Do you know how an NDA works? Or how companies handle having board members with potential competitors? Clearly you don't. An NDA isn't a "pinky swear," it's a document that can carry serious repercussions if broken.

If Apple's board was discussing something that could give a competitive advantage to Google, Eric had to step out. (he said when he first left, and Apple agreed, that he was stepping out of too many meetings to be of use, which isn't surprising considering the weight apple is putting on iDevices)

If he DIDN'T step out and used his position to help Google, he would violate the NDA, and these things have some pretty strict terms to them. Yet, Apple NEVER brought charges against him. If they had something they would, because it would be a HUGE boon for their war against android.

How many of the posters who made rude comments based on the original misquote will now apologize?

lulz

I am not sure anyone here need apologize. That was one crappy bit of journalism. I like AI and am pretty tolerant to all sorts of typos and bias (I come here for the bias), but if anyone should apologize for that one its AI.

From everything that I've heard and read, Schmidt has nothing but the utmost praise for Jobs, and for what Apple has achieved. Sure, he might have a strong negative view on a couple of things, such as how Apple aggressively approaches IP issues, but that's par for the course.

Simplify (Music) was a $2.99 app you could purchase to stream all of your music on your, over the internet, to your iPhone. Simple, intuitive, it just worked. Apparently, while Schmidt is sitting on Apple's board, he allowed Google to purchase the company running Simplify, had the company convert their business to support Android only, & turned of the service for all of the (their) Mac customers. No transition, no comment, no consideration, no sense of loyalty for paid customers, just a harsh cut-throat stab-you-in-the back "ha ha-got you!" to Apple, leaving the inherited customers as carnage on the roadside. This was an unethical decision made years ago, which apparently they stand by as consistent with their business model, as they have never said, "oops, we goofed on that one. They could have left the mac service running, continuing to update it to prove their integrity in the Google name, kept it running without updating it, calling it 'legacy', jokingly refund the $2.99 to the customers, or give them $2.99 credit at the Goggle app store for future purchases. Its evident they don't care. Their agenda is their agenda.

You are one bitter little man (or woman).

I must have missed all of the apologies that Apple has made every time it pulls the rug out from under its customers. You know, that apology to all the outraged Final Cut Pro users after the release of Final Cut X for example.

Being misquoted and actually saying how proud he was to have served on Apple's BOD and how much he just LOVES Steve Jobs, means that now there has to be rounds of profuse apologies to Mr. Schmidt and a general love fest for the man.

No.

What he did, he did. The evidence, albeit circumstantial, is clear that his involvment with Apple allowed him access to and knowledge of key design elements, which he used in turn at Google to redirect Android efforts. There is no effectively logical design path from the initial Android prototype to the resultant Android platform. Period. Schmidt used his position to serve his interest at Google.

That fact remains that the misquote was a more expected response (even if it was jarringly different than the rest of the commentary), than his profuse praise of Apple and Jobs. That AI updated and corrected the article is fine and the right thing to do, but I for one am not going to heed the calls from so many that he was wronged. A little approbation isn't going matter whether called for or not. And it far less than his actions merit in my book. He has thrown in his lot with Google and anything he does or says, has to be viewed in that light.

If you are going to insist on being an ass, at least demonstrate the intelligence to be a smart one

First two posts called him jerk and weasel. I think that's a bit harsh, but I do agree that Google got a leg up on Android as we know it by using Schmidt's accesss to Apple, something that he didn't have when it came to the iPad.

I must have missed all of the apologies that Apple has made every time it pulls the rug out from under its customers. You know, that apology to all the outraged Final Cut Pro users after the release of Final Cut X for example.

You must have missed where Apple backpedaled and started selling the old FCP again. Also, FCPX didn't make all older versions obsolete whereas Google, in the name of open, made those paid apps useless.

AppleInsider should remove the comments posted here that were made before they fixed the error. Most of the comments here are in response to something Schmidt never said.

I am sticking to my original comment. Google has not made any significant amount of money on Android, but it sure negatively affected Apple's market share in the smartphone market, which could have been much much higher if it weren't for Android. If Eric Schmidt were really a friend, he would not have gone ahead with Android, knowing how much Apple had invested in the iPhone project.